iGrain India - New Delhi. The Union Agriculture Ministry has set a huge target of producing a total of 592 lakh tonnes of coarse grains at the national level for the entire season of 2024-25, which is difficult to achieve but not impossible.
This includes the production target of all three seasons - Kharif, Rabi and Zaid (summer). The category of coarse grains mainly includes maize, millet, sorghum, ragi and barley.
The Ministry of Agriculture has also set a target of production of 181 lakh tonnes of Shri Anna (sorghum, millet and ragi) along with 388.50 lakh tonnes of maize and 22.50 lakh tonnes of barley in the season 2024-25. The production target of Shri Anna for Kharif season has been fixed at 147.70 lakh tonnes, 26 lakh tonnes for Rabi season and 11.30 lakh tonnes for Zaid season.
Special emphasis is being laid on the production of maize as its demand and consumption is likely to increase rapidly in the future.
Till now maize was being used mainly for human food purposes and in poultry feed, animal feed and starch manufacturing industry but now its use in ethanol production is likely to increase rapidly.
Firstly, the government is likely to increase the use of limited quantity of sugarcane for ethanol production. Firstly, the government is allowing the use of limited quantity of sugarcane for ethanol production and secondly, it is not making its stock operations available to grain-based distilleries.
Emphasis is being laid on the use of maize as an alternative. For this, an agreement has also been signed between the government and distilleries under which government agencies will buy maize from farmers and make its stock available to distilleries.
Since the domestic market price of maize is running higher than the minimum support price, the government agency is not getting the opportunity to purchase it in sufficient quantity.
Maize, sorghum, millet and ragi are cultivated on a large scale in the Kharif season and barley in the Rabi season.
The government hopes that maize production could be excellent as this time the weather and monsoon conditions are likely to be favourable for the crop to a large extent.